3.) 26 Oct 2018 22:54:16
I was thinking the same thing the other night, only thing I see that makes me think he stays is that the big KHL money has apparently dried up. When Nylanders agent kinda floated the KHL option, it was shut down quickly. When kovalchuk left NJ he went there and was making over $9mill per season for the first 2 years. Then owners reigned in the crazy salaries and kovy only made $5 mill his last 2 years and was still the highest paid. So the threat of going there isn’t what it was a cpl years ago. Nylander doesn’t want $6.5 here, but to go there he’s like a $4-5 mill guy now.

4.) 27 Oct 2018 01:09:55
With people getting more and more superficial, how long until someone makes a racial profile based comment about a russian player going back to the KHL as soon as there's some adversity? Oh, wait.

5.) 27 Oct 2018 09:45:43
It’s not racial profiling lol he has done it before. We are not saying malkin will do it because kovalchuk and radulov did it. It’s saying kovalchuk could do it because he’s done it before lol.

6.) 27 Oct 2018 17:19:29
Does Kovalchuks Kings deal have a no movement clause?
If anything I could see him asking for a trade, he did come back to win a cup. I think. or maybe jus the money. hard to know with that guy.

2.) 13 Sep 2018 19:45:56
Sens get an additional 1st rounder in the deal of Karlsson plays for an eastern conference team this season lol love how they had to protect themselves after sharks already schooled them with Hoffman!

4.) 13 Sep 2018 19:48:27
Karlsson for Norris+1st+2nd+Balcers+Tierney+DeMelo and conditional picks. that's a lot of pieces, but the big value lies in Norris, Balcers and the 1st. Tierney and Demelo are just fillers and a 2nd is a 2nd

6.) 13 Sep 2018 20:25:02
HAHAHAHAHAHA what was that Rambo? Hughes and two firsts or Boeser, Hughes and a first for Karlsson?!?! HAHA you’re clueless. You’re always so arrogant on here like you know everything yet every time you say a player will get this or get that he never does. You know nothing.

10.) 13 Sep 2018 21:53:03
E. Kane and Karlsson are unreal additions.
Karlsson, Burns, Vlasic, Pavelski, Couture, Kane, Thornton.
****. They are the favorites in pacific no questions. And just jumped into the top of the league talks with Nashville, Winnipeg and Tampa.

11.) 13 Sep 2018 22:03:16
Awful trade for Ottawa. Quantity over quality by far. Not one high end prospect in return. Plus if you look at the Duschene trade and compare what they paid vs the return on Karlsson, it’s is completely awful value in return. Another bad move by Dorion. Not saying one of the prospects or picks turns out but that’s a lot of risk for an elite top pairing defenceman.

15.) 14 Sep 2018 04:12:55
I said it superstars like Karlsson don’t actually bring much back because no matter what you get it’ll never amount up to what you gave up. Look at the Gretzky, Roy and Jagr trades none got back mush significans compared to what they were.

26 Jul 2018 21:48:22
Thought i would toss an idea out.
There was a post earlier about Panarin being traded to Toronto, but in the end - not really what Toronto is looking for.
What if you bring in Carolina? Panarin to Carolina, Caronina sends maybe Hanafin to Toronto and Columbus would receive Brown, Leivo, 2nd (toronto), 3rd (Car)...

Columbus gets a speedy young forward in brown, a depth forward (i think Leivo has good potential for a 3rd line) and a 1st and 3rd.
Toronto gets Hanafin on their blue line.
Carolina gets a great winger to help up front with the team. Carolina probably wants more...

10.) 27 Jul 2018 03:37:53
Hanifin went to Calgary in the douggie Hamilton trade. Even if you switched him for some other defender (pesce/ slavin come to mind) I don't think brown Leivo 2nd 3rd would be enough because defenders are valued at a premium. Also Panarin doesn't want to to resign in Carolina.

11.) 27 Jul 2018 19:13:36
Lol, i shouldn't post after i have been drinking.
Anyways, base of the idea was to bring in a 3rd team that would have some defense to put into the mix to send to Toronto and have a need for Panarin on the front end.

02 Jul 2019 18:54:33
So now that the Aho deal is reportedly being matched... should MB go try for Point but up the anti to the next bracket? Say 9M AAV to yield the 2x 1st rounds, a 2nd and a 3rd?

Thunder Turkey

1.) 02 Jul 2019 19:55:39
I would have preferred he did that with Aho . Sounds like he talked to Points agent, who is same as Ahos apparently and this is how the Aho thing started
With Aho, he's an 80+ point man already. and with not a lot of help. Point, although he hit 90+, had an all star team of talent. is he a 65 70 guy on a regular team? I'm not sure.

4.) 02 Jul 2019 21:40:16
Everyone says they should have went next tier on aho but let’s just say he had come here and not really fit in right away and ended the season with 65 or 70 points then what? You make the offer for what your willing to pay and comfortable in paying the guy if you get him you get him if not your back to square 1 without losing anything I’d offer the same deal for Laine and put Chevy to the test.

5.) 02 Jul 2019 21:53:04
I get your point Habby, And I'm torn as to what he should have done. part of me is pretty impressed with his drive to make the team better, the other, disappointed he hand cuffed himself for 7 days. However, on the good part he dodnt over pay for some of the other UFAs.
As for Laine, . I don't think he even signs ar that amount. he's going to look at Mathews contract and want closer to that . is he worth that, no. but I'm pretty sure he's going to want 10+.

6.) 02 Jul 2019 23:32:36
I hope we don't go in on Laine. we have devoted a lot to wingers in the past and really need to focus on center. We have some prospects but if they really pick it up in the next few years i don't want to have an issue with cap that we can't sign a center because we are tied up with Laine.

8.) 02 Jul 2019 23:56:40
And if Laine don’t sign the offer sheet then we still didn’t lose anything but I’d be against making an offer that you couldn’t afford that would handcuff us in a year or two I liked what he did yesterday we all knew there was a good chance Carolina matched but it was a deal he was comfortable giving to aho and it was an offer aho was glad to sign. Forced Carolina to dish out some serious coin and aho went away thanking the Habs for getting it done. In 5 years time he will still only be 26 maybe because of this he might be one of the rare ufas that will want to sign here.

9.) 03 Jul 2019 00:00:02
To give out a deal just to make sure the other team won’t match is the Craig button theory he said the habs should have offered aho 15 mil per year lol. Then on top of the player never living up to the contract we also have to give up 4 1st picks not a smart approach but button will never be confused with a genius lol the front loaded contract approach was the way to go.

10.) 02 Jul 2019 20:37:39
If they’re smart they’ll offer him 5 year 10.5 million per year contract. 2 1sts, 2nd and 3rd. Even if Tampa matches they’re screwed for the future with Vais coming up as an RFA.

11.) 02 Jul 2019 22:44:27
If your going to offer sheet a guy offer something that you think actually has a chance of not being matched. Offering a player an amount that is a no brainer to match is just a waste of time, as Carolina has stated.

12.) 03 Jul 2019 01:24:41
I question the logic of making a bunch of offer sheets (that are going to get matched) when Montreal is going to have a bunch of their own young budding stars vulnerable to them in a few years.

14.) 03 Jul 2019 03:08:46
Habby you said it yourself, “everyone” says they should have went to the next tier. What makes you and Bergevin the 2 smartest people? If Button said $15 million that is obviously ridiculous but the offer was “laughable” as far as an offer sheet goes. It wasn’t just Button, every analyst said that if you want a player, go for him. Bergevin can do no wrong. Yet on the other hand, Dubas makes some pretty solid moves and you say that you can’t believe they had to pay so much to dump Marleau, their forwards are worse, they now have a dilemma of which defenseman they can keep next year. Do you notice any of this when you post or do you think you judge fair with an open mind? I understand some leaf fans are over the top but you can be honest at least. Sosa can praise other teams and talk about what he doesn’t agree with the great Bergevin doing. Myself, I think Dubas is doing a pretty good job. I can’t believe he didn’t trade Nylander right away when he held out and now we’re here again with Marner. Other than that, he’s doing a good job working with minimal cap space. There’s still no physical players which will need to be addressed.

17.) 03 Jul 2019 05:16:02
@leafs17 it seems like you only read the negative things I say about the leafs I do say some good things it pains me some times but I still say them. Now I’m not going to get on here and plan the parade with you guys year after year or anything like that. The offer sheet was worth a try and I liked It yes the cap hit was low and I assumed they would match it but the signing bonus which forces Carolina to pay 21 million over the next 12 months is something they really didn’t want to do considering it’s probably there whole gate profit for the year on top of that if there is a strike next year they still have to pay it and then they don’t have any income while the strike is on. It was a slim chance at getting a good player at the price you wanted without giving up much. And it didn’t work out . Not yet anyway but at the end of the day he took a strategic shot and he never got the player but guess what he didn’t lose anything either it’s not like he just gave up a first round pick for nothing or anything like that lol.

18.) 03 Jul 2019 05:30:14
And Sosa he still has cap space to make a signing so he didn’t handcuff himself I d say he can still play with around 10 million if he wants to only Panarin and bobrovski got that kind of money I suggest you scroll through the videos on tsn from what button said today not what he said on the free agent frenzy show.

19.) 03 Jul 2019 07:48:51
Ok, but Habby. all I'm saying is if he locked in 8.5 for Aho. what else did he have? I did watch a god portion of the TSN thingy, and seen Button . however must have missed his 15M comment . he can be a little dramatic at times. as much as I like Aho. he never was that. Only MCDavid is worth that.

20.) 03 Jul 2019 07:51:22
I think it's not unlikely that MTL approached Point before they approached Aho, but that Point had no interest in signing with MTL and then they went for Aho instead.

And if they should offer 9M, TB matches anyways, just like CAR does, so what's the point?
Teams are using offer sheets wrong. It's not intended to go after big stars. It should be used to go for young mid-tier guys like a Labanc or Meier for example. SJ got Meier cheap for 4x6, what if someone offered him 5x7.5, would they have been able to match?
Or even more useful: team should have offer sheeted Kapanen and/ or Johnsson. Leafs got them cheap, why didn't teams offer them 3x4.2M? Makes it very hard for the Leafs to match and the cost is nothing but a 2nd rd pick.

21.) 03 Jul 2019 09:56:50
“Or just make sure you have your RFA’s locked up before anyone can offer sheet them”

Sounds good, but doesn’t work. The player has to sign what you are offering to be locked up. If they don’t like it, they can just drag their feet until July 1st and see if anyone offers something they like more. That’s exactly why so many teams are where they are with their RFA’s today.

I mean Bergy’s a pretty muscular guy, maybe he can challenge them to an arm wrestling match or something. Winner take all.

22.) 03 Jul 2019 09:56:50
“Or just make sure you have your RFA’s locked up before anyone can offer sheet them”

Sounds good, but doesn’t work. The player has to sign what you are offering to be locked up. If they don’t like it, they can just drag their feet until July 1st and see if anyone offers something they like more. That’s exactly why so many teams are where they are with their RFA’s today.

I mean Bergy’s a pretty muscular guy, maybe he can challenge them to an arm wrestling match or something. Winner take all.

23.) 03 Jul 2019 14:59:05
You’re right habby. It was a strategic way to accomplish nothing. No they did not give up a 1st, lol. Is that another subtle jab? You think your team and your GM are just fricken wonderful and they can do no wrong. I just wanted to say my piece, I’m not going to go back and forth with you on this. I’ve seen how you can argue for 3 days straight, even when nobody responds to you.

26.) 03 Jul 2019 18:38:07
So your Gm is the best? Gave up a first to unload a contract with one year left . And traded zaitsev for the worst defenseman in the world in leafs fans eyes 2 weeks ago and had to add Connor brown the guy who could do no wrong 2 weeks ago. Like do you see the hypocrisy here in accusing me of thinking my Gm can do no wrong?

30.) 04 Jul 2019 12:18:43
Not to mention RFAs are low priority because you have more control over them, especially ones without arbitration rights. GMs only have so much time and a lot of the window between end of season and free agency is figuring out what to do with their UFAs and what UFAs to target. RFAs know they don’t have a lot of leverage so will intentionally drag the process into even September, there’s a reason none of the major RFAs have signed yet and it isn’t that their teams don’t want them on a fair deal.

32.) 04 Jul 2019 12:21:00
Disagree Habby. Dubas did what he had to two of Lou Lam’s mistakes, and trading that first allowed Toronto to keep all of their young stars, which nobody (myself included) believed he would be able to do. He escaped cap hell and somehow managed to make the roster better while doing so.

If you had told me a month ago that the Leafs would clear out Marleau and Zaitsev, keep Johnson, Kapanen, Marner and Nylander, improve the defence without crippling their center depth, and it would only cost a 1st and Brown, I would have absolutely called BS. IMO he has had the most impressive offseason of any GM, and frankly it’s not even close.

33.) 04 Jul 2019 17:24:00
Well it's left to be seen yet if marner stays and if he does the cap hell starts all over again next year. I think dubas has done a decent job I would not have give up a 1st just to get rid of marleau though the zaitsev deal I'm ok with I was just pointing out things like how Ceci was considered horrible and among the worst in the league by most of the leaf fan base before he was traded to Toronto. Now magically he is somehow good and in some fans opinion is now a top pair dman. Some of my comments over the last few days were not directed at all leaf fans lol.

34.) 04 Jul 2019 17:31:52
Jbs that's all true without the fear of offer sheets but if a team actually thinks one of its players are likely going to get an offer sheet then it might be a good idea to focus on getting them signed asap if we start seeing more offer sheets we will start seeing more rfas locked up before they get a chance to sign one. It's pretty simple actually.

36.) 04 Jul 2019 21:46:01
I still don’t think so Habby. Either they get the player on a contract they’re ok with (likely not much more than they would have negotiated themselves) or they get compensation they deem appropriate for them. The Aho offer sheet did nothing to change how teams do business some are saying that Carolina actually got off better than they might have if Montreal didn’t offer sheet and they know what they’re locked in at potentially months earlier. And VB I think TB would match point at 10.5 without too much trouble.

37.) 04 Jul 2019 21:50:54
Like a GM can only do so many things at one time, he’s one person. So things with hard time limits like the draft and UFAs are going to come in at a higher priority than the guys that they opportunity to either match or get assets back for if someone else tries to sign them. And the assets required to sign these guys combined with the money tends to put teams off. For what it’s worth I think teams are doing it wrong, don’t go for the studs with offer sheets go for the mid tier guys.

38.) 05 Jul 2019 17:12:17
I'm not disagreeing with what your saying jbs cause that is exactly how things work now. What I'm saying is if the offer sheet thing becomes more common GMs can focus more on getting their own Rfas locked up before they can be pursued by doing such things as talking contract throughout the season if need be and if it doesn't look like a deal can be made they have the option of waiting to see if there is an offer sheet which can help or hurt them. Or they can work out a trade beforehand this might lead to more interesting trade deadlines and more interesting July 1st.

39.) 06 Jul 2019 09:40:30
@VB: #1 First, Point would have to sign such an offer sheet, which seems unrealistic, since he already turned down an offer sheet from MTL.
#2 Should it still happen, of course they'd match. Why wouldn't they?

28 Jun 2019 19:11:32
Apparently Lehner is almost guaranteed not to sign for NYI. Where do you think he would be a good fit?
I'm guessing Edmonton might try to make a move for him.
Anywhere else that would put forth a better offer?

2.) 28 Jun 2019 21:16:55
Edmonton won’t make a move for him. I can say that with like 95% certainty. He’s going to ask for around 6 million. That means oilers will have 10 million locked up for goalies. Oilers have too many issues on the wing to just lose 6 million like that. Expect them to sign somebody like Mike Smith or Mrazek.

3.) 28 Jun 2019 21:26:28
I thought they should have traded for Mrazek back when he got traded for like a 3rd to Philly. But now if I had to guess he’ll cost too much as well. The goalie market is “weak” but the Oil still could have gotten better than Koskinen and potentially cheaper. Thanks Pete. Not sure why I haven’t heard any rumours about LA’s goalies either.

25 Jun 2019 17:12:35
W. Karlsson signed 8 years for less that $6M a season. That sounds like a great deal to me. Did that just help reset the market?

Thunder Turkey

1.) 25 Jun 2019 17:22:13
I think that’s fair value for him, but a lot of the other RFAs will still demand more because they are much younger than Karlsson and he really came back down to earth this year in a high scoring season. I expect a lot of the other big name restricted free agents to demand more unless they take a bridge deal.

4.) 25 Jun 2019 23:40:31
I believe Forbes said the difference between what Mark Stone makes on 9.5 mill in Vegas compared to California ends up being about 71k a year so I really don’t think there’s much of an impact. The difference between 5.9 and 6 mill.

6.) 26 Jun 2019 06:08:18
y'all are aware that this tax argument is huge bs? It barely makes a difference.
Have you thought about the CAD/ USD factor, tho? THIS is a huge advantage to Canadian teams. They pay their players in USD, those same players live in CAN, tho. So 8.5M USC gives them 11.2M CAD buying power. How about that for an ACTUAL advantage.

8.) 26 Jun 2019 12:39:54
Pardon me Triplets and JBS but you are both clearly ill-informed on this issue.

Here's a snippet copy and pasted from Capfriendly: "Tavares makes $11 million in Toronto and his net salary is $5.145 million, while Kucherov’s $9.5 million salary in Tampa Bay nets him $5.781 million. Kucherov still has a higher net salary playing in Tampa Bay, even though Tavares gets paid $1.5 million more in Toronto. "

I would not say that "barely makes a difference"

Now as you pointed out players are played in USD, but that impact is largely offset by the higher prices paid for goods in Canadian dollars vs. USD (buying a Big Mac in Toronto has a higher nominal price tag than buying one in Florida) .

Also, a lot of the cities in high-tax areas (Toronto, New York, Vancouver, etc. ) are way more expensive to live in (buying/ renting homes) . So there's obviously a lot of moving parts, but you can see why living in Nevada (low tax, relatively inexpensive real estate, etc. ) would be appealing. They will never be able to make it perfectly even, but the NHL needs to find a way to shorten the gap in "true cap" between various regions because right now teams in states with low/ no income taxes have a material advantage over others, clearly contradicting the spirit of the salary cap which was designed to create parity and level the playing field.

9.) 26 Jun 2019 15:15:30
Unsportsmanlike capfriendly simply takes contract by home tax rate. Forbes takes into what they are actually paying in taxes. Capfriendly ignores the 50% of games played on the road and the other loopholes players used. California is the highest taxed US state, Nevada has 0 state taxes. Difference on Stones 9.5 mill is 71k. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions in the sport made as an excuse as to why other teams can’t keep their players, it’s not like any of these teams has ever been grabbing superstars left and right on the open market. The impact is extremely overstated. And like VB said, Canada is taxed higher but being paid in USD and having expenses in CAD usually puts them ahead even if their entire salary was taxed in their home city. The Athletic also had an article about how the issue is really nonexistent.

10.) 26 Jun 2019 15:16:40
Also since you used Tavares let’s go with him. All but like 650k a year is a paid in a bonus. If he had a Florida residency that entire bonus is taxed in Florida. He can then take one and RCA on the other 650k. He puts half his income into there and if he retires to Florida he can take it out at Florida tax rate. Tavares would then only be taxed outside of a no tax state for half (minus games played in those states) if his low annual salary, about 325k of his 11 mill annual salary. Like I said there are ways around the tax, unlike other imbalances people are ok with. You don’t see players in any sport rushing to Florida nor do non-state tax teams have a lot of success as a whole in any sport.

11.) 26 Jun 2019 15:56:32
Also with the taxes, you pay taxes to where you are playing. So when you are on the road, you pay taxes to whoever you are visiting. It helps even it out, but in places like California where they play half of their games at home and a significant amount of road games within the same state it makes a bigger difference.

2.) 20 May 2019 14:22:04
In all honesty the penalties that sanjose took were blatant.

high stick to steen double minor.
brent Burns Blatant Tripping of tarasenko on breakaway
then taking two penalties at the same time by different players then of course haley acting like a turd sandwich
Then Kane tripping binnington, laying high hit on petro, kneeing petro and tarasenko

The sharks imploded and tried to hurt blues players. Real Classy team. They have been gifted two game seven games and game 3 against blues by refs, now they complain they are being biased LOL.

3.) 20 May 2019 21:21:16
seemed like San Jose couldn't get anything going. couldn't make a clean pass, they were shooting pucks off their own players and what not. st. louis looked really good (maybe their powerplay could use some work) but yeah it could be their year.

10 Apr 2019 16:52:55
Anyone have a good site ranking players for a playoff pool?

Thunder Turkey

1.) 11 Apr 2019 04:30:01
If you mean one that factors in the likelihood of a specific player’s team going far into the playoffs, no, I am not aware of one that does that. A “best guess” would be to take a players ppg over the season and multiply that by (1/ that player’s team’s stanley cup winning odds) but that would not be an exact science by any means (vegas odds move in order to balance their books/ limit their exposure to a particular outcome so it’s more a reflection of the consensus of the gambling community) .

2.) 11 Apr 2019 23:46:32
Dallas beating Nashville would be the biggest potential upset in the 1st round Imo even more so then clb beating Tampa. The 3 worst rosters depth and skill wise are Dallas Islanders and penguins.